Artwork
Lot and His Daughters
Lot and His Daughters is an oil painting by the Early Baroque Italian artist Claude Vignon. It dates from 1625 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
Overview
The figures are set against a dark interior that hints at distant foliage, and a modest table bears a metal cup and a silver vessel.
Claude Vignon’s 1625 oil painting *Lot and His Daughters* presents a compact, nocturnal tableau in which an elderly, bearded man occupies the left foreground, while two women flank him on the right. The figures are set against a dark interior that hints at distant foliage, and a modest table bears a metal cup and a silver vessel. The composition captures a moment of tension and secrecy within a biblical narrative.
Subject & Meaning
The work references the Genesis episode in which Lot, having fled Sodom, is persuaded by his daughters to conceive offspring. Vignon chooses to emphasize the intimate, conspiratorial aspect: the older man shields his face, while the women gesture toward a mirror, suggesting a concealed revelation or a moral ambiguity about truth and desire. The scene thus invites contemplation of familial duty, deception, and survival.
Technique & Style
Vignon employs a pronounced chiaroscuro, allowing stark light to illuminate the figures against an enveloping gloom. A rich palette of reds, blues, greens, and golds highlights the garments, while the surrounding darkness deepens spatial recession. The handling of oil paint shows vigorous brushwork and a keen interest in texture, reflecting the influence of Caravaggio and the broader early Baroque aesthetic that favored dramatic lighting and emotional immediacy.
History & Provenance
Created during Vignon’s mature period after his Italian training, the painting reflects the cross‑cultural exchange between French and Italian Baroque circles in the early seventeenth century. Though specific ownership records are sparse, the work has been documented in French collections since the eighteenth century and remains a representative example of Vignon’s religious genre output, illustrating his adaptation of Italian Baroque techniques to French tastes.
Artist & collection
Artist
Claude Vignon (19 May 1593 – 10 May 1670) was a French painter, printmaker and illustrator who worked in a wide range of genres.
